With increasing production of oil and gas from offshore locations, there has been a need for the capability, as to both method and equipment, for accomplishing remote connection of flowlines to underwater installations such as wellheads. Numerous problems involved in connecting flowlines to underwater installations at depths too great for practical diver assistance have been apparent, and prior-art workers in the field have proposed a variety of methods and devices for accomplishing such connections. Typical proposals are disclosed in the following U.S. Pat. Nos. Re. 26,668, Word et al, 3,052,299, Geer et al, 3,090,437, Geer, 3,220,477, Jones, 3,233,666, Geer et al, 3,233,667, Van Winkle, 3,308,881, Chan et al, 3,339,632, Lewis, 3,352,356, Wakefield, 3,373,807, Fischer et al. Early flow line connectors and methods involved provision of a connector having a stationary part and a second part capable of being shifted axially into mating engagement with the stationary connector part, one end of the flowline being connected to the second connector part end-to-end and that combination being lowered by vertical guide means, with the second connector part held in horizontal disposition, until the second connector part has been brought into horizontal alignment with the stationary connector part, the second connector part then being shifted horizontally into mating engagement with the stationary part. Such an approach has two disadvantages. First, it is unduly difficult to achieve precise coaxial alignment of the two connector parts remotely, particularly with the flowline attached to a connector part which must be maintained horizontal. Second, in such an arrangement, the fixed horizontal disposition of the connector requires that the adjacent end portion of the flowline also be horizontal after the flowline has been laid out, so that the end portion of the flowline requires mechanical support to protect both the connector and the flowline. In view of those disadvantages, it has been proposed to make a part of the connector pivotable about an axis transverse to the flow path through the connector, so that a part of the connector can be disposed initially in upright, upwardly opening position and a stinger on the end of the flowline can then be lowered into that connector part while the end portion of the flowline extends vertically up to the operational base, laying out of the flowline then causing the connector to pivot to a final position. Though that approach offers advantages, it poses the problem of locking the pivotal connector part in its final position, so that the final position of the pivoted connector must control the disposition of the attached end portion of the flowline, and special mechanical support means is again required. Further, in prior-art approaches of both types, it is usually necessary to employ an internal connector element which shifts axially relative to the rest of the connector, so that an internal recess is caused which may interfere with the travel of pump-down tools. Because of such problems, prior-art methods and equipment, though meritorious, have not been entirely satisfactory.